Associate Dr. Matthias van den Heuvel Coauthors Article on Associations Between Environmental Policy and Cleantech Investments

In a new article published in the Journal of Public Economics, Brattle Associate Dr. Matthias van den Heuvel and his coauthors discuss a news-based index of US environmental and climate policy they developed using machine learning.

Designed to capture the history and evolution of relevant federal and state-level environmental and climate regulations in the past four decades, the index – which uses articles from ten leading US newspapers from 1981–2019 – shows trends and peaks in policy as well as its association with clean investments and the government’s role in the clean energy transition. The authors find that their index is associated with a greater likelihood of receiving venture capital funding for cleantech startups and reduced stock returns for high-emissions firms that are often subject to environmental regulations.

The full article, “Heard the news? Environmental policy and clean investments,” is available below.